Gun cleaning wicks

[The Miner '49er]

I'll begin by saying I have no connection to Coleman's Military Surplus, where I bought these, other than being a satisfied customer. What's a cleaning wick? It's what the German army uses to clean rifles. For $12.95 you get a box of 1000 wicks, actually it contains 125 bundles of 8 sticks, and each stick is composed of 16 strands of 100% cotton. Each strand is about 7" long. You can see in the photo that I made a cleaning rod from a dowel. For my .50cal, I fold in half 8 strands and put them thru the slot then cut the looped side open. This gives me 16 strands on each side, and it scrubs the lands and grooves better than any patch I have ever used. Of course, you can add or subtract strands to get the bore fit you want. Give them a try.

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

A modern take on cleaning with 'tow', see here:

https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/cleaning-with-tow.166868/page-2#post-2391640
Have you found the wicks to be reusable? TOW can be rinsed, dried and reused.

 

[Yewbender]

49er, clever idea.

I at times use this method. The worms can be found at The Log Cabin Shop.

 

[Notchy Bob]

I'll begin by saying I have no connection to Coleman's Military Surplus, where I bought these, other than being a satisfied customer. What's a cleaning wick? It's what the German army uses to clean rifles. For $12.95 you get a box of 1000 wicks, actually it contains 125 bundles of 8 sticks, and each stick is composed of 16 strands of 100% cotton. Each strand is about 7" long. You can see in the photo that I made a cleaning rod from a dowel. For my .50cal, I fold in half 8 strands and put them thru the slot then cut the looped side open. This gives me 16 strands on each side, and it scrubs the lands and grooves better than any patch I have ever used. Of course, you can add or subtract strands to get the bore fit you want. Give them a try.

Now, that's interesting. I had not heard of these before. They look sort of like short lengths of butcher's twine.

Cleaning "loops" are under-appreciated these days. I like that rod you show in the photo. I've made a couple of wooden rods with slots like that. They aren't hard to make... Shave a little flat on opposite sides of the rod, drill a series of closely, spaced holes, cut out the waste with a pen knife blade, and clean it up with a folded bit of sandpaper. Ned Roberts described these in The Muzzle-Loading Cap Lock Rifle: "The target rifle requires both a loading rod, or ramrod, and a cleaning rod in order to obtain the best accuracy. Years ago these were both made from tough, straight-grained hickory, white oak, or other close-grained, tough wood... The cleaning rod is made of the same kinds of hardwoods, somewhat longer than the loading rod, one end having a small knob with a square under-cut, and a narrow, tapering shank [exactly like a jag]... to hold square or round cleaning patches. The other end should have a rectangular slot about one inch long by 1/8 inch wide cut lengthwise in it to hold the dampened patches for cleaning the bore after each shot" (p. 69-71 in the 1952 edition). I have heard these called "wash rods." also.

You can whittle the jag on the other end of the wood rod to any size you want for those odd, old-time calibers, although you might have to reduce the overall diameter of the rod.

A loop like that with a strip of rag in it (or a cleaning wick, I suppose) will do a good job of cleaning the bore, and is pretty forgiving of bore size. It also works well for preliminary cleaning of a very dirty, rusty barrel. It is my belief that a species of devil lives down deep in the bores of neglected muzzleloaders. I call it the "Patch Demon." The little bastard will grab and hold a snug-fitting patch on a jag down there in the breech, and next thing you know you have a real chore on your hands getting it back out of there. You might end up posting a "stuck jag" thread here on the forum. Using a patch or cleaning wicks in a loop like that is a good way to start if you have to clean a badly neglected barrel, for defeating the Patch Demon. It works pretty well for cleaning a good bore, too.

Thanks for posting! I had not heard of cleaning wicks, but they look as if they would work well. Leave it to the Germans... The folks who gave us Ballistol.

Best regards,

Notchy Bob

 

[The Miner '49er]

No, I've never tried reusing them. I once read about some folks who wash and reuse gun cleaning patches (gasp! - that must take a very tiny clothes line) but, IMHO that, like rinsing the wicks and letting them dry seems like too much work for .0000001% reward.

Now, that's interesting. I had not heard of these before. They look sort of like short lengths of butcher's twine.

Cleaning "loops" are under-appreciated these days. I like that rod you show in the photo. I've made a couple of wooden rods with slots like that. They aren't hard to make... Shave a little flat on opposite sides of the rod, drill a series of closely, spaced holes, cut out the waste with a pen knife blade, and clean it up with a folded bit of sandpaper. Ned Roberts described these in The Muzzle-Loading Cap Lock Rifle: "The target rifle requires both a loading rod, or ramrod, and a cleaning rod in order to obtain the best accuracy. Years ago these were both made from tough, straight-grained hickory, white oak, or other close-grained, tough wood... The cleaning rod is made of the same kinds of hardwoods, somewhat longer than the loading rod, one end having a small knob with a square under-cut, and a narrow, tapering shank [exactly like a jag]... to hold square or round cleaning patches. The other end should have a rectangular slot about one inch long by 1/8 inch wide cut lengthwise in it to hold the dampened patches for cleaning the bore after each shot" (p. 69-71 in the 1952 edition). I have heard these called "wash rods." also.

You can whittle the jag on the other end of the wood rod to any size you want for those odd, old-time calibers, although you might have to reduce the overall diameter of the rod.

A loop like that with a strip of rag in it (or a cleaning wick, I suppose) will do a good job of cleaning the bore, and is pretty forgiving of bore size. It also works well for preliminary cleaning of a very dirty, rusty barrel. It is my belief that a species of devil lives down deep in the bores of neglected muzzleloaders. I call it the "Patch Demon." The little bastard will grab and hold a snug-fitting patch on a jag down there in the breech, and next thing you know you have a real chore on your hands getting it back out of there. You might end up posting a "stuck jag" thread here on the forum. Using a patch or cleaning wicks in a loop like that is a good way to start if you have to clean a badly neglected barrel, for defeating the Patch Demon. It works pretty well for cleaning a good bore, too.

Thanks for posting! I had not heard of cleaning wicks, but they look as if they would work well. Leave it to the Germans... The folks who gave us Ballistol.

Best regards,

Notchy Bob

Yes, heavy butcher twine is very similar to the wick strands. Those same people who gave us wicks and Ballistol also gave us brats and metts and tied them up in butcher paper with that cord, but I digress. I epoxied a wooden cabinet door pull on the end of the dowel at the other end of the rod. To make the slot, I drilled a series of holes and then cleaned them up with a dremel and sandpaper. Flattening the slot sides helps get the mass of wicks started. A dowel is really necessary b/c there's no way to get those strands through even a large slotted rod tip. I hope you try them and find them as useful as I. Thanks to all who have commented.

 

[Grenadier1758]

I really like the pictured wiping rod pictured in @The Miner '49er's post. As one who wipes the barrel between shots I can see a real benefit in that setup if the bottom of the notch is just below where the fouling crust ring would be forming. A set up like that would clear the crusty fouling ring but would not be pushing fouling deep into the powder chamber and flash hole. I think I might have a job for my lathe.

 

[The Miner '49er]

I really like the pictured wiping rod pictured in @The Miner '49er's post. As one who wipes the barrel between shots I can see a real benefit in that setup if the bottom of the notch is just below where the fouling crust ring would be forming. A set up like that would clear the crusty fouling ring but would not be pushing fouling deep into the powder chamber and flash hole. I think I might have a job for my lathe.

The other end of the rod, plus look at all the wicks you get!

 

[Grenadier1758]

I do know that cleaning wicks aren't going to put as much stress on the rod and handle, however, I do believe that I would pin the know to the rod.

 

[The Miner '49er]

I do know that cleaning wicks aren't going to put as much stress on the rod and handle, however, I do believe that I would pin the know to the rod.

Sorry, but I don't know what you mean.

 

[Notchy Bob]

Sorry, but I don't know what you mean.

I think @Grenadier1758 means he would put a cross pin through the wooden drawer pull handle to secure it to the rod in addition to the epoxy, to make sure the knob doesn’t pull off.

Notchy Bob

 

[Grenadier1758]

@The Miner '49er, I am sorry about the typo in my statement.

What @Notchy Bob said.

Knob, I meant to enter knob instead of know.

We have a lot of threads on the forum that deal with stuck balls. One method to remove a stuck ball is to use a threaded ball puller to remove the stuck ball. Many of the rod tips are epoxied to the rod. All too often these tips pull off before the ball is removed. As a matter of best practices, I always run a cross pin through whatever is attached to the ramrod and the ramrod as I epoxy the tip to the rod. That way, whatever is meant to be a permanent part of the ramrod remains a permanent part.

 

[The Miner '49er]

Got it! It would only take a few minutes to drill through and put in a finishing nail, but even if the knob did become detached it wouldn't be hard to use the rod until it was repaired. I might do that, thanks.

 

[Ohio Rusty]

If you make your own char cloth, those bundles of cotton wicks make EXCELLENT char bundles. They catch a spark on the first strike as the string bundles have lots of nooks and crannies for the spark to land into. A big KUDOS to Bill Farmer from Ft. Boonesboro for sharing that charred string knowledge with us frontier folks 10 years ago.

 

[The Miner '49er]

If you make your own char cloth, those bundles of cotton wicks make EXCELLENT char bundles. They catch a spark on the first strike as the string bundles have lots of nooks and crannies for the spark to land into. A big KUDOS to Bill Farmer from Ft. Boonesboro for sharing that charred string knowledge with us frontier folks 10 years ago.

Man, that is thinking outside the box! Good one.

 

[VA Hawken]

Should you decide to order some of these (I did), you can sign up for their email list, with a 20% discount code to be used off your first order. Depending on how many boxes you order, you can pretty much negate most of the shipping charges.

Great suggestion from @The Miner '49er

 

[The Miner '49er]

Should you decide to order some of these (I did), you can sign up for their email list, with a 20% discount code to be used off your first order. Depending on how many boxes you order, you can pretty much negate most of the shipping charges.

Great suggestion from @The Miner '49er

Yep, VA Hawken, that's exactly what I did several months ago.